Song Analysis

"Well she’s in Texas, she’s in Austin. She’s in a very liberal place in Texas where she had met people that introduced her to people that, I guess you could say, are questioning... the political integrity of ’The Good Guys’ - quote, unquote - ’The Good Guys,’ meaning us, I guess, those that are called ’The Good Guys.’ And so this is very much um, a Central American question.

There is a revolutionary-type character that is educating her in some of the transgressions that have happened and some of the factual things that have happened and also his point of view, all at the same time. And he’s very much about action, and he’s very passionate about it. And she’s seeing somebody passionate about something, and so she begins to really understand that she’s got to know what it is that she believes in and where she’s willing to go with this.

Because he knows what he believes in, there’s no question about that. And he stands by what he believes in. Really, Sweet Sangria is their time together. It’s really about... them, as a unity." (Scarlet Stories CD)

Her prayer is answered and instead Sweet Sangria finds her in Austin, Texas. There she meets a Latino revolutionary, fighting American intervention in Central and Southern America. But the more Scarlet is drawn into the fight, the more she begins to see that she can’t go along with hurting innocent people - on either side. "For him, the end justified the means. But although she believes in the cause, she can’t load the gun... It’s about what you believe in and how far you’re prepared to go." (Scarlet’s Walk bio)

"We’re taught to win and we’re taught to take. And we’re not taught that it can be a win-win. And that’s why on ’Sweet Sangria,’ it keeps coming back to: Why does someone have to lose? (Pulse November 2002)

"Sweet Sangria" finds Scarlet in Austin, Texas, where she briefly falls for a Latin revolutionary.

"She can’t fight his battle. She believes in his cause but can’t load the gun. She doesn’t believe in the death of innocents, which mirrors how I feel about what may happen [in Iraq]." (The Record February 28, 2003)